Tree - Superlative Trees

Superlative Trees

The tallest living tree is believed to be a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) at Redwood National Park, California. It has been named Hyperion and is 115.66 metres (379.5 ft) tall. The tallest known broad-leaved tree is a swamp gum (Eucalyptus regnans) growing in Tasmania with a height of 97 metres (318 ft). The largest tree by volume is believed to be a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) known as the General Sherman Tree in the Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California. Only the trunk is used in the calculation and the volume is estimated to be 1,487 m³ (52,508 cu ft). Also in California is the oldest living tree with a verified age. It is a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) called Methuselah growing in the White Mountains. It has been dated by drilling a core sample and counting the annual rings and was considered to be 4,844 years old in 2012. It is thought likely that other bristlecone pines exceed 5,000 years of age. A little further south, at Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico, is the tree with the broadest trunk. It is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) known as Árbol del Tule and its diameter at breast height is 11.62 m (38.1 ft) giving it a girth of 36.2 m (119 ft). The tree's trunk is far from round and the exact dimensions may be misleading as the circumference includes much empty space between the large buttress roots.